The Adventures of a Christian Mom, Grandma and cancer surviver!

Yesterday found me attending a fund-raising event for FOCOS, the Foundation of Orthopedics and Complex Spine, Inc. which is the group I make the afghans for. I was privileged to meet Dr. Boachie-Adjei, who is the founder of this group. He grew up in Ghana and made it his life goal to become a doctor so that he could help these severely deformed children through his skills as a surgeon. The event took place at the Detroit Yacht Club and, to put it mildly, I was waaaaaay out of my league (financially), but still managed to have a good time. Bettye Wright, the head nurse I’ve mentioned in my blog for The Ghana Project, had their photographer take loads of photos of me with several other people, and in each photo was one of our afghans! (even one with Dr. Boachie & I holding it up!). The appetizers were tasty, the building was amazing to ogle at (very old architecture), and it was good to know that we are doing a good deed for others. As soon as the photographs are posted I’ll try to post them on this site. They were intending, to my knowledge, to use them for their website and their newsletter, so I’m not exactly sure just how soon I’ll get to see them.

Hugs;

Pammie

Wanted to include a few of the beautiful photos of the scenery at the Detroit Yacht Club. It was a gorgeous day outside, as you can see: (remember you can click on a photo to enlarge it)

There are days and then there are “DAYS”! Yesterday proved to be one of the latter-crazy, disoriented-just not a good day all around except…

Yesterday was our 31st wedding anniversary and the day started out with a BANG! It had been raining all night, a leak in a bedroom ceiling caused me to be awakened at around 3:45 a.m. by middle son because it was leaking in his bed! Later on I awoke with a start because I suddenly realized that my oldest son was due in 15 minutes with the baby! To shorten this, he’s teething and mostly cranky. The day plodded on: ceiling leaking, cranky baby, doing tons of laundry, a quick run through tons of stored clothes to see if any fit youngest son for school starting in 2 weeks, etc. If you’ve ever had one of “those” days when you just seem to be totally clumsy, knocking things over (like a full bowl of cat’s water all over your feet & the floor, etc.); that’s how this day was going. Did I remember to tell you it was our Anniversary? My dear friend “Momma” called to wish us the best and her call was a ‘bright spot in a dreary day’. My husband called to ask me how my day was going and to tell me that his was just about as much ‘the pits’ as mine was. There was a surprise change though, when the baby’s Mom showed up about 1 1/2 hours early to pick him up (right when his ‘crankies’ were really hitting hard…thank heavens!). I decided to use this ‘free’ time to it’s best advantage and went to Dairy Queen to purchase a “Oreo Sundae” ice cream cake to ‘sweeten’ our Anniversary. It did; we had a ho-hum dinner (really didn’t plan that out well, either…oh well…) followed by a terrific slice of that cake; THAT made our day. My husband agreed that we both deserved/needed that little ‘slice of heaven’ to make our day. Day saved!

That’s my report on the ‘events of the day’…although it wasn’t a ‘fireworks and sunshine’ day…it worked, and after 31+ years with my husband, we’re both still able to smile and enjoy what we have together. To me, that’s what counts!

Where to start!? Today started with me going to the post office to get stamps and checking my PO box; low and behold there was a package from Lindy Maier for The Ghana Project! Another 25 crocheted squares-how exciting! Between Lindy’s squares, “Momma’s” squares and those I’ve been knitting, we have almost 3 afghans! You know what I’ll be doing in the next few days-sewing them together. (will post more photos when I get them developed). NOTE: sorry for my lack of photos of events/items/people on time, as in “when the event occurred”, but…I don’t have a USB port on my computer which would allow me to directly place photos from my camera onto this site, hence it requires me going to the drug store and making a photo CD then bringing it home and loading it, etc. As to Photos, the following will be ‘after the event’, but still wanted to share them. (click on the photos to enlarge them)

Couldn’t resist sharing this one with you-we were ‘sharing’ graham crackers.

Lastly, I submit a photo of the completed afghans, to this point; there are a total of 7 here, the first photo is them folded up, the one to the right is some of them opened up so you can see the various colors & stitches.

So I submit my blog entry for today, full of a variety of photos and subjects for your enjoyment. Hope you are able to enjoy this lovely, sunny Saturday.

Yesterday found me checking my mailbox only to find a box filled with 30 knitted and crocheted squares from my dear friend “Momma”! Now, not to lead you astray…these 30 squares are added to her already sent packages and altogether total something like almost 60! That’s almost 2 complete afghans @ 30 squares per afghan! How’s THAT for a true friend!? I’m still plugging along on my knitted squares; need something like 7 more to complete another afghan. Using “Momma’s” squares in conjunction with mine really speeds up the process! I will add photos to this post (hopefully) when I get the pictures developed off of my camera (that now holds photos of her other mailings!). Just for those who might be interested, I mailed the following addy to several friends who are true aficionados of knitting/crochet and all things ‘yarn’; I give you

(forgive me-I don’t know how to make this addy a direct link to this site, but believe me…it’s worth seeing!)

It was interesting reading all 91 comment posts following the pictures; her husband sounds very understanding and supportive. (I’m not so sure MINE would be, if I were in possession of all that yarn…but then, we don’t have a room THAT big, anyway!). I can see that it CERTAINLY brings out certain emotions/feelings, etc. in people-like shock, envy, possibly jealousy; for me it was more like total ‘awe’…I can’t even imagine in my whole lifetime that I would be able to use up all that yarn…but then, who knows?

What else is going on around here, you ask? Yesterday was a rather pleasant, peaceful day in which I was able to relax and quietly knit, listen to a new Celtic Hymns cd and have a new vanilla candle burning to add to the ‘feminine’ atmosphere. A little later found me doing my “Grammie” thing with my dear, sweet grandson. He’s a year old now and very active, but on this day he was in dire need of a nap so, of course, as is ‘my way’…we rocked and patted, humming “The Muffin Man” song. That song has gone down through the years with each of my children, day care children, foster children and now my grand child. His daddy used to like it sung (not hummed) at top speed while rocking like a rocking chair ‘fiend’! His son likes it softly hummed, slowing down with the rocking and patting as sleep gets nearer. Works every time! Today is a wedding of a good friend’s daughter, at 4 p.m. Everyone else in the family has sort of ‘begged off’ (“Mom! Do I HAVE to go?”) and I can see why…weddings are not usually a ‘guy thing’ (including my husband) so I shall go unaccompanied, and enjoy myself thoroughly! (And I get ‘fancy’ dinner stuff as opposed to ‘leftover zucchini casserole’ like they’ll be having! Wink! There’s a method to my madness, no?)

Have a great day…it’s a balmy 78 degrees out and just lovely with the sunshine…ENJOY!

Just a quick note here: just added more new stitch patterns to “The Ghana Project” site, in case you might be interested. Just found a really ‘fun’ pattern-very simple, but the results pleased me; it’s called (very fancy name here) Double Andalusian Stitch which produces little purl ‘dashes’ on a knit background. Lately my days have been spent babysitting, shopping for wedding gifts, buying school supplies for middle son and knitting. I KNOW-I said I was taking a break…guess you could say I lied (but I really try NOT to lie). I DID go back to the embroidery project…for about 2 1/2 hours then realized just how boring it can be! Picked up the needles again within that very day and haven’t stopped since. Didn’t even start the “other” project I was going to: knitting the large heart square for couch pillow number 4. It will come, just not immediately. I just found an old knitting book that I’d bought back in the 70’s which is ‘chock-full’ of great stitch patterns so I’ve kind of been like a kid with $10 in a penny-candy store: “Ooooooo, this looks good! Let’s try THIS one!” You know the way that goes….don’t you?

Some days are better than others; today found us (a) at the hospital emergency room checking to see if Son #2 (the recent high school graduate) managed to break his ankle the previous evening at work or not and, (b) then ‘celebrating’ (sort of) by going to the beach. After three hours of sitting around and waiting (me with my knitting, of course), it appears he just sprained it. (Quick story: He was doing stock at work, on a small step ladder with a large box filled with gallons of some liquid..he wasn’t sure what, might have been vinegar, he stepped back, sort of jumped down and landed heavily on the left ankle. With multiple gallons of liquid and the weight from them, he was in pain. Not enough to cause immediate ‘go to the hospital’, but enough to raise the broken ankle question.) He had gotten up that morning and began my day with him by uttering the wonderful sentence: “Mom, I think I broke my ankle.” Since it was just sprained, AND being that he’s 18 and not in full control of his faculties (my view of the 18 yr old mentality), he decided that going to the beach would help ‘cure’ his problems. A little later my 2 sons, one girlfriend, and myself spent several relaxing hours at our local beach. The outside temperatures were in the high 90’s, but the beach water was ‘bath water’ temp…JUST RIGHT! I happily floated around on my ‘noodles’ (actually learned to make a very comfortable floating seat with them). All worked out right for such an abrupt start.

(Addendum: it’s day 2 of the sprained ankle and he’s doing better). Today we went for haircuts (the boys were beginning to look like hedgehogs!) and then to the “Simpson’s” movie (youngest son’s idea…and his older brother’s birthday present to him). Big Spoiler: DON’T WASTE YOUR MONEY! Lots of crass humor, tons of violence…they were laughing, I almost took a nap…(am I showing my age here?).